Are these myoclonic jerks?

[lsasvv]

Hello! I have been twitching for only for three months. I get all kinds of twitches all over my body. But I also get these very strange jerks. They are like involuntary contraction of whole muscle while I've heard that fasciculations are contractions of a group of muscle fibres. Are these myoclonic jerks? I mostly have them on my feet and ankles and they happen at rest. They are quite similar to those that one can get while falling asleep but i get them when I'm wide awake and for example sitting on couch watching tv. They are very random and i don't get many of them in a row, just a single one every now and then. They are also very brief, other people don't notice them.

I saw a neuro last saturday but forgot to mention these jerks... I thought they were just some kind of fasciculations. Anyway, neuro checked my reflexes, muscle strenght and did some other test and everything was normal. i was super afraid i had als but neuro told me that's not the case because of my young age (just 19) and my case just didn't seem like als. He told me that i can get a emg just for my peace of mind but he didn't think it would be necessary. Neuro thought that my symptoms were just something anxiety-related.

My symptoms usually come and go. I might have some very good days with almost no symptoms at all and then a couple of bad days. They haven't really gotten worse during these three months of twitching. I have also had some paresthesias (slight numbness, a sensation like someone would poke me with a stick made of ice.) Last few days I have been experiencing a lot of those jerks. I asked the doctor google and read that they can be epilepsy-related. But I also know myoclonic jerks can be caused by stress and anxiety. Is there any difference between anxiety-related jerks and myoclonic seizures? Of course now I think I must have a brain tumor or an aneurysm. Would clinical tests that neuro made have shown some abnormalities if that was the case?

So does anyone else here experience myoclonic jerks while being wide awake? Are these jerks usually part of bfs? And if anyone here happens to know anything about brain tumors... Does this sound like one?

I'm sorry about my english. I'm not a native speaker. Thank you a lot! reading this forum has been really helpful.

[nrwtwitcher]

Hi Isasvv, Mycolonic jerks are also normal for healthy people. Myoclonic jerks are a normal reaction from the muscles while falling asleep. This is extremely normal.

[lsasvv]

Thank you but i don't get those jerks while falling asleep, i get them during the day while being awake. When sitting on a couch just for example.

[nrwtwitcher]

oh sorry. But I think it is the same. Myoclonic jerks are a symptom of "normal"people and also of people with bfs. It could be a higher muscle tension as a result of stress and anxiety. But not a sign of *** or anything similar.

[nickston]

yeah, wide-awake jerks can happen with bfs. especially if you're in a relaxed state, eg, watching tv.

[lsasvv]

Okay, that's interesting. Thank you all yes, my jerks always happen at rest. So does anyone know what causes these jerks? Is it a brain thing? If they are not seizures then what are they?

And I've got to correct my first post. When i said that most of time i have these jerks in my feet i meant legs my english sucks

[Yuliasir]

jerks are usually a result of brain hypersensitivity, which we all suffer in certain extent. so the threshold for muscle action is lowered, and even a slight stimul may cause mucle contraction.

unlike classic spasm or seizures (the diffrenece between them is rather vague), jerks are not painful at all and just represent a kind of strong twitch involving few large muscles.
when you are relaxed, your brain discharges become more evident.

[lsasvv]

Thanks, Yuliasir

So I just got one of these jerks while my muscles were not at rest. I mean I was sitting on a couch and holding a plate in my hand and then my hand jerked! It was a very brief one so it didn't even really move the plate. I know it wasn't my hand just shaking because it just didn't feel normal. Does this (getting jerk when nor at rest) make any difference? (Actually I think I just got one more while writing this message on my phone. My wrist jerked and even moved the phone... Scary!)

[Yuliasir]

Nope. you had just a twitch.

Experience of dozens and dozens of fellows gathererd here says that no matter if you have jerks, ticking, fine invisible twitches, fine visible but not felt twitches, 'worms', etc., unless they are not accompained by neurological deficite - they are benign.

[Xina535]

Hi, would like to jump in and say that I'm pretty scared about this:

Just now, when falling asleep, my whole body jolted/jerked like as if someone had shocked me. It was one time, did not hurt. This happened to me once before recently, same situation.

Googled, but saw these words "myoclonic jerks can also be a sign..." And I stopped reading. I searched on here and found this thread.

Is this normal? Full body jerk, and it being a new symptom (so if I have something serious, maybe a sign things are getting worse?) should I pay attention as to how often this happens and/or tell my neuro?

Scared!!

[Yuliasir]

Xina,
right search is a key. Why google "myoclonic jerks are the symptom of" or even 'myoclonic jerks'? You should google (if ever) 'sleeping jerks' just to find something like 'it is very common'. And nothing about scary symptomes.

Myoclonic jerks leading to suspect that this may be a serious disease are things like non-stop hiccup for days and weeks (it happens sometimes), involuntary jerks during voluntarily activity, virtually preventing such coordianted activity (like you may see in people with child paralysis) etc. Healthy people may have so called anckle pseudoclonus (rhythmic movement in lower leg muscle when sitting and placing a foot on the tiptoes, especially anxious people have that very prominent), and ALL healthy people can have sleeping jerks. Those are physiologically normal. BFS people sometimes have muscle jerks when just sitting relaxed, and this also does not mean nothing bad.

One of the prerequisites for development of health anxiety is that we, plain non-medical people, may not just name the symptome right. Therefore we know that jerks might be myoclonic, ok, but for those of us who are not neurologists or do not have sick relatives, there is almost 100 % chance that we never had seen how it looks like. So we stamp ourselves with 'oh it is myoclonic jerk' or 'oh it is weakness', and we move the wrong way from that point.

What I had learned from staying on this site is that unless you found that things are really strange and prevent you from simple actions (like to coordinate your movement), they usually are relatively innocent.

[Xina535]

Hi Yuliasir,

Thank you for your advice. I feel better that this jerk is harmless.

I did google "jerk before falling asleep" and the results came, first thing, the wikipedia for myoclonic jerks and my phone added a few sentences from the article where it mentioned sleeping but then had those words, "..are also a sign of...". I did not click on it because I don't want to know what they are also a sign of.

I may have had these jerks before, not sure. I just know I noticed them happen twice recently, both when I was about to fall asleep, so I thought "is this a change in symptom??". Anyway, I will try to keep calm about it.

But just wondering, since I am not going to google it:

If someone has myoclonic jerks, can that be a harmless thing, or are they always a bad sign? Is there a difference between myoclonic jerks and normal jerks, like for instance, myoclonic jerks happen all the time, repeatedly?

[lsasvv]

So Yuliasir you said that jerks during voluntary action are bad. I think i have had that a couple of times. Once when i was just moving forehead muscles, my whole forehead twitched! Same kind of thing has happened with my cheek.
Also sometimes when my leg jerks it feels like i was just about to move it but then it jerked! But I'm not sure was I. Well, this doesn't happen often.

I am so scared that this is action myoclonus. I've been trying to google it but i haven't really found anything about it. But anyway, even these jerks do not bother my life because i have only gotten them a couple of times. I am not sure what this is and that's why i am a bit scared!

[Yuliasir]

I do not know if jerks during usual activity are BAD SIGN or not. I know for sure that sleeping jerks are normal and happend even to the cats or dogs. Generally limb jerks during awake periods or regular activity, if they are not ocassional, are called chorea as far as I remember, and this is of course a reason to see neurologist.
but I am sure it is not about forehead or cheek. Those are induced twitches most probably.

Isasvv,
my advice would be definitely not to invent symptoms, as I said before, and do not call them action myoclonus or clonus, or something else deliberaltey unless your neurologist would confirm that.
otherwise you may be dramatically mislead (and may be misleading for other members on board), and our brain gladly palys such tricks with us poor creatures.

[Xina535]

Isasvv, I agree with Yuliasir and i recommend talking to your doctor about what you wrote above and your fears of what you think is happening. Or have you already? If so, what did they say? Hope you are well.